Neil Robertson

D.O.B: 11 Feb 1982
Lives: Cambridge
Turned Pro: 1998
Ranking Tournament Victories: 6 - Grand Prix 2006, 2009; Welsh Open 2007; Bahrain Snooker Championship 2008; Betfred.com World Snooker Championship 2010; 12BET.com World Open 2010
Last season World Snooker Tour prize money: £176,501
Highest Tournament Break: 147 - China Open 2010

Robertson's 2010/11 season didn't match the success of the previous campaign, though he did add another ranking title to his collection.

At the brand new 12BET.com World Open, staged in Glasgow, Robertson beat the likes of Graeme Dott and Mark Williams to reach the final, then thrashed Ronnie O'Sullivan 5-1 with a tremendous performance to take the £100,000 top prize.

"Ronnie's still my idol, whenever I get knocked out of a tournament I hope he wins it," said Thunder From Down Under Robertson, who has won all six of his ranking finals. "I put him under pressure tonight and made some good breaks out of nothing. There were some texts flying around before the final saying that this would be the one I would lose, and that fired me up.

"I've won four BBC tournaments now, so my goals are to win the UK and the Masters and to do better in China. Having a title under my belt early in the season gives me the confidence to go on and win more."

That result also put Robertson at the top of the world rankings. But he failed to reach the winner's podium in the remainder of the season and finished at No 5. His biggest disappointment was giving up his World title when he lost 10-8 to Judd Trump in the first round at the Crucible. "It was a really tough game. I made some silly mistakes and he handled the pressure well," he said.

A year earlier in Sheffield, Robertson had made snooker history by becoming the first Australian to win the Betfred.com World Snooker Championship title, and only the third non-British player, after Cliff Thorburn and Ken Doherty, to lift the famous trophy.

In the final he met gritty Scot Graeme Dott, the 2006 champion. After losing the first session 5-3, Robertson recovered to lead 9-7 overnight, and was able to nurse that lead through the last day. The match finished well after midnight despite the fact that there could have been another four frames, and it was Robertson whose stamina prevailed as he triumphed 18-13.

"It was such a titanic struggle of a match," said the ecstatic antipodean.

"When you watch some finals you think the standard is bad, but when you're in the same position you realize how much pressure there is. The pressure before the final and during the final, it's just incredible. When I first came over to Cambridge, I would not have thought I could have achieved this.

"I seriously cannot believe it. It's great to have another champion from down under, England can have the Ashes I'll have the World Championship," joked Robertson, whose mood was lifted even higher a few days later when he became a father for the first time, his Norwegian girlfriend Mille giving birth to a boy called Alexander.

He also won the Grand Prix in the same season, beating Ding Junhui 9-4 in the final.

Robertson previously beat Jamie Cope 9-5 in the 2006 Grand Prix final, Andrew Higginson 9-8 (from 8-6 down) in the 2007 Welsh Open and Matthew Stevens 9-7 in the 2008 Bahrain Championship. He is also the only player from outside Britain and Ireland to have won six ranking events.

The left-hander, who comes from Melbourne but is based in Cambridge during the season, made his first real impact was winning the World Under-21 Championship in 2003, beating China's Liu Song 11-5 in the final at the Great Lake Centre in Taupo, New Zealand.

Later that year he won the qualifying competition for the Masters, beating Dominic Dale 6-5 in the final, to earn a wild card to the Masters. He was handed a baptism of fire at the London venue against local hero Jimmy White and lost 6-2.

An avid sports fan and a keen follower of rugby, cricket and Aussie Rules football, Robertson has also learned to appreciate English football and decided to support Chelsea after marvelling at the skills of Gianfranco Zola.

He enjoys the music of Timbaland, Metallica and Guns & Roses and asserts that if it wasn't for snooker, he would have made a career as a graphic designer.